Entre Fronteras (Between Borders): the power of service-learning in cultural exchange and social action in the United States -Mexico borderlands

Abstract eng:
Health and social development of the US-Mexico border region are impacted by a complex interplay of macro - micro level economic and immigration policies often challenging to teach in a traditional classroom setting. Service-learning is a form of community-centered experiential education that locates emerging professionals in a community generated service project and provides structured opportunities for reflection. Moreover, service-learning serves to enhance student awareness of and commitment to the elimination social inequity. Here we describe and explore the impact of an intensive, binational, service-learning course on public health students’ personal and professional transformation and their conceptualization of the intersections of migration, economic development, and health in a US-Mexico border context. We found service-learning to be a powerful teaching method that serves to strengthen cultural exchange among faculty, students and community and contributes to culturally salient action on the social determinants effecting the health and social development of US-Mexico border communities.

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